I have been reading a lot of scripts lately where the writer struggles with the transition between Act II and Act III. I can relate, because when I first started writing, I had no idea how to handle that transition. The transition between Act I and Act II is easy. It’s where the adventure begins, and it is the moment the hero commits to the adventure and sets out to accomplish whatever outer goal has been set up.

But the transition from Act II to Act III is trickier.

The adventure is already happening. The hero hasn’t yet won the prize. What could possibly happen to make the story change directions again? I got my answer in a screenwriting class at USC when the instructor referred to it as the moment the hero loses everything. More commonly known as the “all-is-lost” moment, it’s the point in the screenplay where it looks like the hero has failed. What’s more, the hero has failed because she was unable to overcome whatever inner weakness has been blocking her. All protagonists must have this trait, and it must conflict with their ability to get what they want. That inability to overcome their inner weakness hits hardest at the Act II-Act III transition, causing the protagonist to appear to lose everything. Act III then becomes about the protagonist overcoming whatever their internal weakness is to either ultimately accomplish the goal or to ultimately fail.

Is that what always happens? Not necessarily, but most of the time, it is. The transition between Act II and Act III must be the most dramatic moment of your screenplay, and I have seen too many examples from aspiring writers when that moment falls flat. If that dramatic moment means Will breaks up with Skylar in Good Will Hunting, then that’s what it is. If it means Indiana Jones loses the Ark of the Covenant to the Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark, then that’s what it is. Or it could be something like the Rebels deciphering the plans to the Death Star and figuring out how to destroy it as it bears down to destroy them in Star Wars. It isn’t an “all-is-lost” moment, but the direction of the story shifts from them trying to escape the Death Star to them trying to destroy it.

That is the overriding point of what is being said here. The transition from Act II to Act III must be and/or do a couple of things. It must either be the most dramatic moment in the script where your hero loses everything, or it must change the direction of the story because what had been the main goal of the story was either already accomplished or has been made impossible to accomplish. Either way, the hero is forced to change direction to accomplish her ultimate goal.

Consider Raiders of the Lost Ark for a moment. When Act I ends, Indy’s goal is to find the Ark of the Covenant. Well, he finds it in the middle of Act II. At that point, his goal shifts to keeping the Nazis from getting it. Act II ends with the Nazis doing just that, and they kidnap Marion to boot. It looks like Indy has failed, and now he must change direction again and spend Act III getting the Ark back from the Nazis.

The major plot points of a script should always change the story’s direction. Whether it’s setting off on the adventure at the end of Act I or appearing to have failed at the end of Act II and needing to overcome some inner weakness to accomplish that goal in Act III, new and experienced writers must make sure that moment that transitions us from Act II to Act III is dramatic enough to change the story’s direction. Otherwise, the story’s structure will fall flat, as will the story’s entire sense of drama.